FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 126 (10/09/98)

WORD TO THE WISE

Thank you for the Boot Camp articles on Microsoft Word. I wonder if you could also show me how to create a letterhead that reappears on command, and can be used repeatedly without having to erase the previous letter. I have looked in the help menus, and for the most part these are unhelpful. I suspect that they are written by the same people who compose the IRS forms here.

David Edelbaum MD

A

Word has a useful facility called Letter Wizard that can help you create a customised, reusable letter template. On the File menu click on New and select the Letters and Faxes tab. Choose a style of letterhead by single-clicking on the relevant file icon (i.e. Contemporary, Elegant or Professional), you can see what they look like in the preview window. Double click the icon to start the Wizard and fill in the information you want to appear -- your name and address -- plus anything else you deem important. Don't be afraid to change typefaces and sizes or move any of the elements around by dragging and dropping them. You don't have to worry about the date, Word inserts it automatically. When you have finished go to the File menu, select Save As and give your blank letterhead a name. If you want top be really clever you could make Word open from the desktop to your blank letterhead. Select the File open icon and right-click on your letterhead 'doc', to highlight the entry then select the Send To option and click on 'Desktop As Shortcut'.  Whenever you use your blank template to write a letter don't forget to use the Save As command to rename and file it in an appropriate folder.

WHERE'S IT GONE?

I have a straightforward Pentium 120 PC to which I have added a Lexmark printer - that's all. It came with preloaded Windows 95, some Lotus, some vendor applications and other software. At the time I thought that a 1.07gb disk would more than meet my needs. I have stripped out the unwanted software, use only minimal Lotus applications and have added CompuServe 3.0.3, Netscape Communicator, PrintMaster and Encarta 97. I want to add a scanner but my system insists that I have only 85 megabytes disk storage available.

Defrag tells me that I am only 1% "defragged". I have worked laboriously through Windows Explorer trying to size the files. The largest I can find is DiskPro at 106Mb; everything on the hard drive comes to only 533Mb - so where has the other 400Mb gone?

When I contact the dealer it always seems to be my luck to get someone who talks gobbledegook at 50mph still leaving me wondering what the answer was. Do preloaded systems come with hidden files that no one tells you about?

Hal Thomas

A

Explorer will miss a lot of hidden and system files and Windows 95 is notorious for commandeering free hard disc space. A large chunk has undoubtedly been assigned to the Swap File or Virtual Memory. This is a block of memory -- used to store programs and data -- that changes size according to the applications you are using. Normally Windows manages the virtual memory but you can elect to set the size yourself by opening the System icon in Control Panel, selecting the Performance tab and clicking on the Virtual Memory button. Even so, this is not going to win you back much space and it may slow your system down. The basic problem is the size of your hard disc drive; scanner files swallow up huge amounts of disc space and even if you recover a couple of hundred megabytes, they're not going to last very long. It's time to think about an upgrade, and while you're at it make sure you have at least 32Mb of RAM otherwise the scanner will operate very slowly.

FAX OF LIFE

In response to David Jones question (F!F!F! 27 August) regarding receiving faxes on his PC, another alternative is to subscribe to a fax service like JFAX. This provides your own unique fax number and doesn't require any hardware.

They also support voice messaging, and supply all the software to support the service, free of charge.

Simon Conway-Smith

MORE USEFUL FAX

In F!F!F (27 August) you deal with a problem of receiving faxes and leaving the computer on all the time. I have got around this difficulty by converting incoming faxes to email messages. My ISP Demon Internet provides this service for a one-off charge of £23.50. Now I receive my faxes at the same time as Email.

Andrea Quinn

A

Thanks to Andrea, Simon and the other readers who came up with similar solutions. The only point to bear in mind with these types of service are that unlike a conventional paper fax, which commands instant attention at its destination, unexpected Internet faxes can remain unread in the recipient's remote Email box. For that reason they may not be suitable for urgent messages, or where it is important the sender has confirmation the fax has been received. If you would like more information contact:

www.demon.net/services/dfax

http://www.jfax.com

CALL COLLECT

At present I have to connect to the telephone network to find out whether or not I have any Email messages waiting for me. Is there any way to detect incoming messages without the need to make a telephone connection?

John Collier

A

No, your Email messages are stored on your Internet service provider's server computer, where they remain until you pick them up. Whilst it would be technically possible for an ISP to call you or your PC, and advise you that you have mail waiting, we don't know of any company that provides such a service.

POSTCODE POSERS

In F!F!F! August 27 you carried solutions to occasional problems when AutoCorrect in Word 97 produces unwanted results, such as converting (c) into the copyright symbol, and a postcode like 5TH into a date ordinal.  An alternative, which leaves the AutoCorrect feature enabled, is to use the Undo button on the toolbar, immediately after AutoCorrect converts.

Raymond Griffin

A

Duly noted, and thanks too, to G. L. Mitchell who suggested using Alt + Backspace, and Charles H. Tupper who recommended Control + Z, which is the keyboard shortcut for Undo.

THE BUG IS BACK

I obtained my computer in December 1996 with the assurance that the year 2000 bug would not be problem. Since then I have seen various articles stating that claims concerning millennium compliance may be incorrect. How can I find out if I have a problem, and if so, what can I do about it?

Tony Booker

A

The real time clocks on most 1996 vintage PCs should be 'Y2K' compliant, so the dealer who sold it to you was probably telling the truth, at least as far as your hardware is concerned. What no one can tell you for certain is how your software will react to the date changeover. Most major applications released within the past three or four years should be okay, in any case programs like word processors, graphics packages, internet browsers, games etc. are not date sensitive and will continue to operate quite normally after midnight December 31st 1999, even on older non-compliant PCs. However, the only way to be sure is to contact the relevant software company's customer service department, pay a visit to their web-site or wade through the zillion and one Year 2000 sites on the Internet, featuring literally hundreds of test programs and fixes. Good places to start are the Year 2000 information centre: http://www.year2000.com, and not forgetting the official UK Government 'Action 2000' site on: www.bug2000.co.uk